Macon Magazine

When the stress of her healthcare management job really gets to her, Denise Cauley turns to her own special tonic. Not the kind that comes in a bottle, but something even more intoxicating. She hops on her Honda Shadow VLX and lets the smell of Georgia pine and the sweet hum of the motorcycle’s engine carry her along the back roads and away from the pressures of life.

“When you ride a motorcycle, you can’t allow yourself to think about anything else,” said Cauley, 52, director of Central Georgia Home Health. “It’s a free-spirited thing. I like not knowing where you’re going, getting lost and figuring out how to find your way back.”

In Macon and across the nation, increasing numbers of women are finding their way to the sport of motorcycling for the same reasons - and then some - as Cauley. Riding represents healthy escapism, independence and broken barriers into a male-dominated world.

And it’s a whole lot of fun.

“Women are probably the fastest-growing segment of new riders,” said Ed Llorens, sales manager for Macon’s Capitol Cycle. “It’s a market that’s just now being tapped and is only going to get larger.”

The Motorcycle Industry Council says women make up nearly 13 percent of all riders, but that’s a 29 percent jump in just five years. The Web site motosportsbusiness.com reports that women make up 40 percent of those now signing up for Motorcycle Safety Foundation training for new riders - a dramatic increase from just a few years ago.

Steve Edmonson, a Capitol Cycle sales associate, said the industry is responding to the female market by rolling out bikes with lower seats and lighter frames, as well as lines of riding apparel designed especially for women.

“I see as many women as guys coming in here looking at motorcycles,” he said. “One difference I have noticed is that woman riders are more likely to do it right. They get training first, and then they buy a bike.”
“I thought some top talent should be brought in,” said Long. “I suggested the film festival contact Karen Black. My father said, ‘Do it.’ “